About

T H I S S I T E

This is a nonprofit public weblog dedicated to translating and sharing lyrics to Japanese songs. Although any Japanese song that piques my interest is welcomed here, my main focus is on anime music.

In sincere attempt to avoid any violations of copyright laws and in full respect to their songwriters, I will NOT include Japanese (Kanji+Kana) lyrics in this weblog. If you find this inconvenient in any ways, I apologize. Please be reminded that I have not made the laws.

I also look forward to adding dedicated sections for the sole purpose of sharing knowledge of the Japanese language in a simplified, rich and friendly environment. That, however, remains currently a goal for the future and will depend on the reception and participation of visitors, if so interested.

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P O S T S F O R M A T

Title: Name of the song + (English translation of the title, if needed)

From: Name of the single/album + (English translation, if needed)

Anime: Name of the anime, if it’s an anime song + position of the song within it + (related episodes of the anime) + (time period in which it was used in the anime)

Lyricist: Name of the writer of the lyrics, if available (All names are in English order rather than Japanese. Given name then Last name)

Vocalist: Name of the singer, if available

Composer: Name of whomever composed the music, if available

Date of Release: [Month+ day +year] of the release, if available

3. Romanized lyrics : Romaji

4. Translated lyrics : English

5. Translation Notes : (T/N), if necessary

► A “♫” music note, denotes a musical interlude in between the lyrics lines. It’s my personal preference but an interlude is defined as an interval between the lyrics which at least lasts “8” seconds; and if it is less than that I won’t bother to denote it. If one or some lines are put in between two of these “♪“, it would mean that the interlude includes or is mixed with original and clearly-pronounced lines. If those lines are not part of the original Japanese Lyrics I will put them accordingly in brackets [ ].

T E R M S O F U S E

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Contents published here are absolutely free of charges and obligations, and will never be subject to any restrictions regarding copying/sharing. You are not asked to ascribe this weblog or me for the contents, whatsoever.

Nevertheless, by using this weblog, you’re asked to strictly refrain from two indecencies:

Using these contents to make money in any way; and/or placing or including them in a proprietary and non-free site, context, media or any environment, the web or the real world, which would require people to pay money to gain access to them.

Plagiarism. A.k.a. claiming these contents as your own work, with or without some “smart” changes; translations and transliterations, alike. As insignificant as lyrical translations might be, it is an obscene act which would unfortunately only lead to discouraging any future efforts to continue and improve this site. Whether or not accrediting someone for their work is one thing, and in case of the contents shared here I don’t care for credits; but tagging your own name on them is an entirely different thing, and an indecent one at that, too.

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Thank you very much for understanding.

M Y T R A N S L A T I O N S

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Translations, inevitably and by nature, are prone to mistakes. No matter how we look at it, a translator is inserting a chain of concepts from one culture and language into another. This process itself suggests inaccuracies due to the existing differences between the two sides of the translation.

Japanese is much more of a syntactically-lenient and semantically-liberal language when compared to English. Part of what interests me in it, lies just there. Meanings, references and grammatical persons are situation-dependent, pronouns are hence completely optional, grammar is widely different and occasionally unique; and especially in songs, even verbs can be omitted and still the meaning could be there. Translating from Japanese is not always, but unquestionably CAN be difficult, emphatically so when it comes to songs.

A translator’s job, in my humble opinion, is to do his best at capturing the meaning, however awkward or lacking the context might sound at first, while maintaining maximum accordance with the source, highest possible precision in the process, and continued unity regarding meaning. Hence the tagline “Consistency, Accuracy, Transparency”.

Every translator keeps a certain proportion of each of the three standards towards the completion of his work, whether aware or not, and some might even ignore one or more, all being dependent on personal disposition and preferences. Personally, I tend to keep a high proportion of these three simultaneously, but none are ever superlative or higher of priority to others. All said, I am favorably inclined towards “meaning/semantics” while making sentences and at the same time keeping a sharp eye on “structure/grammar/syntax”.

Keeping up with these standards will, of course, prove to be hindering. I do not claim to be good, as that will always be the audience’s right to judge. Nobody is perfect, neither am I; nonetheless I do try to follow my own standards to utmost possibility and minimize the amount of mistakes. There are times and places where I have to insert “my understanding” or “my choice/preference” of the lyrics, based on the surrounding context, theme, sentence structure and other factors.

The most mistake-prone spots are where “verbs” are missing or certain phrases are polysemous or ambiguous, as well as the frequent case of pronoun omissions. On such occasions and the like, and if so needed, I will add Translator’s Notes (T/N) at the very end of the page to include and/or explain other possibilities to the best of my knowledge and searching capabilities.

I search for reliable Kanji lyrics on Evesta, Listen Japan, and Utanet, as I unfortunately do not have a good access to most of the albums and their pamphlets due to political surroundings and limitations. Many thanks and huge thumbs up for their great sites!

This weblog contains, only and solely my own translations. As I will explain later down this page in “ME” section, I have previously done translation jobs on two other websites. If you have previously seen something you find here, somewhere else, be it any other weblog or site etc, it does not mean I copied them here. It’s merely due to this weblog being my newest preferred place to share lyrics. Furthermore, those previous translations might become subject to slight precision changes in their process of relocation.

R E Q U E S T S

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Hearing is not my forte, nor is it preferable by any translator who promotes and upholds “quality”. Not to mention “impossible” songs, translation based on hearing is susceptible to inaccuracy and so I’m very disinclined to spend time on it.

Requests must be posted in the Request Lyrics page. Any misplaced requests that fail to correctly re-post in the proper page, even after my probable annotation to do so, will be ignored and/or deleted.

Whether your request(s) are rejected or accepted will be mainly decided upon based on the following criteria:

Whether I like the song or not. Selfish as it might sound, I will need a minimum motivation as well as reason to add it here. There are very very few songs I might dislike enough to reject, so no worries.

Whether or not I can find (or you can point me in the direction of) a credible source for the original Japanese (Kanji) lyrics.

Whether or not I can somehow gain access to the song itself and listen to it. This might be a minority case, living in the age of internet.

Even with these conditions, I would like to ask you to feel absolutely free to post your requests. Your contributions, in whatever form, will in the long run, help create a rich and vivid source for quality lyrics to memorable songs, and hopefully Japanese learning references.

Requested songs that are accepted and added will be pointed out with a [Req] at the start of the title and a “req” in the beginning of the slug (at the end of the address URL), as well as in the Site Stats page, to be easily distinguishable and found in the long run.

M E

I’m just another Baaaka with enough time on my hands to blog, an unleashed inner otaku that apparently can’t get enough Wapanization, and a painfully obvious bad idea of humor. 😀

I live and work in Iran, was born in October 1986, and have a growing fondness of Japanese. My net nick is Kyuzo, or Kyuzo_dono.

I have a very shifting and restrictive real life schedule. I do have a fair amount of free time but also I enjoy a good number of hobbies besides music. I study linguistics leisurely and whenever I have the luxury that is time.

The weblog is undoubtedly affected by this schedule and I previously apologize for any and all inconveniences.

I picked up the interest for Japanese by and since watching anime in Japanese audio around 6~7 years ago and after picking up the basics, self-studied to get a better hold of the language. Watching anime, listening to Japanese songs, reading manga, attending some classes, self-studying and very helpful online sources contributed to what little I know today. I have always been fighting extreme limitations provided by the culture and the government of Iran, where I live, but one of my favorite sayings which wraps it all up for me is “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”.

The nick “kyuzo/kyuzo_dono” originated from my first favorite anime character as well as one of my all-time favorites, “kyuuzou” from the series “Samurai 7”. That is his name’s correct Romaji, which I simplified and sometimes changed since it already existed where I wanted to register. “Dono” is an official honorific whose usage in the past was exclusively to address samurais (and rarely people of high social standing) in Japan.

I’m always open to receiving feedback about the blog, but please feel free speak out your mind if you wish to contact me on other grounds.

Public e-mail: hs90_2010 (at) yahoo.com

It’s written that way to help prevent spam, please type the @ sign instead of (at) and remove the spaces, if you want to email me.

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6 comments on “About”

hello there, kyuzo-dono 🙂
your blog was awesome! then I stop in here..
the ‘Watching anime, listening to Japanese songs, reading manga, attending some classes, self-studying and very helpful online sources contributed to what little I know today’ line was inspiring. yeah you know, japanese is such a complicated language, but you cannot resist that it’s challenging! i wish i could improve my japanese.
*anyway, it’s kinda surprising to know that you live in Iran!*

Your comment delights me. Thank you. I sure hope you can improve your Japanese and you can email me if you had questions I’d be glad to reply when I have time, and if I can.
Other than that I recommend “imabi.net”. A very, very, gifted but underrated young individual is making available comprehensive high education sources of Japanese.
And remember. Japanese, and any other language is a walk in the park, relative to “how good a listener” you are. Meant that in both a linguistic and non-linguistic sense.

hello XD I’m another mere visitor of your blog that has been lurking around just recently (but I save paged some of your lyrics I hope it’s okay ><ll, for Spyair, literally._. (I know biggest chances are they will never heard about it but it's okay:|) and it contains most of their lyrics' pieces, and I wanted to ask for your permission to use your translation as my reference and if (only if (_ lll)) someday I put the work I made somewhere on the internet, your translation to be the one I'll post for it (I'm trying to make the song in japanese but since I'm 'still' just an ordinary person who doesn't know how to use japanese language well… I'm trying to get some help from others too haha TT TTll)..
..I think that is all I wanted to ask you about._. plus:
1. lllorz I'm reaally reaaally sorry for making you have to read all of that, my babbler, because this is awkward for me Idk why._.
2. please forgive my fail engrish asdfghjkl it's not my first language so… (I shouldn't be reasoningTT TTlll)
3. THANK YOU very very much for the translations & time spent on reading this QuQ I'm really thankful & sorry for I am awkward TTuTTlll..

hai there, kyuzo dono,, i don’t know how to say it, but Spyair’s Niji is what brings me to your blog, and after wandering around here and there, i must say that i adore your work! your translation really awesome! i thought you are a native with a very good english for a moment there. then i found out you are much more than that. keep up the good work! you literally have fans here, in Indonesia! 😀

Can you guys help me I have a Japanese song stuck iny head I don’t know the name of the song but there are two songs that I found on an anime music app and it got deleted and there were only two songs that I don’t remember I don’t know the anime nor the name of the song but I can hum parts of the song can you please help me ?